Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: COVID vaccines and hearing issues, at-home tests & more
In the United States, more than 80.3 million people have tested positive for coronavirus as of Saturday, April 9, according to Johns Hopkins University, as cases are slightly going down in the country.
To date, more than 985,000 people living in the U.S. have died, including about 2,000 since last week. Worldwide, there have been more than 497 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including about 5 million new cases since one week ago.
Additionally, over 6.1 million have died from the virus globally. Roughly 218 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated as of April 8 — 65.5% of the population — and 98 million of those people have gotten a booster shot, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Roughly 99% of the U.S. lives in a location with low or medium COVID-19 Community Level, the agency says as of April 7. About 0.5% of Americans reside in an area with a high COVID-19 Community Level. For them, it’s recommended to wear a mask while indoors in public.
The CDC reports the weekly average of COVID-19 cases has dropped nationwide as of March 30. Cases are 3% lower compared to the prior week’s average, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, COVID-19 “hospitalizations will remain stable or have an uncertain trend” as of April 6.
The omicron BA.2 subvariant dominated positive U.S. cases for the week ending April 2.
Here’s what happened between April 1 and April 8:
Could COVID vaccines cause hearing issues? What health experts make of WHO’s report
Ever since COVID-19 vaccines rolled out to protect against the virus that has since reshaped the world, there have been some reports of hearing issues following vaccination, according to the World Health Organization.
“Further assessment” is needed on whether reported cases of hearing loss and tinnitus— experiencing intense sounds such as ringing or buzzing in at least one ear — are connected to the COVID-19 vaccines, a WHO newsletter recently published online said.
A total 164 cases of hearing loss and 367 cases of tinnitus from across the globe, including from the U.S., were reported by Feb. 22, 2021, just a few months after the vaccines started rolling out in the U.S., the WHO said. On average, the hearing issues occurred one day after a COVID-19 shot was administered.
Keep reading for what experts say:
Panic attacks, fatigue: Some doctors say they’ll quit over COVID stress, study finds
A quarter of doctors who participated in a February survey said they plan to leave their primary care jobs within the next three years because of stress over COVID-19, according to researchers.
The survey, conducted by The Larry A. Green Center, a Virgina-based medical research organization, showed that primary care physicians’ stress levels improved as vaccines became widely available in the U.S. last summer, but declined again to pre-vaccine levels when the Delta variant of the coronavirus sparked waves of new outbreaks across the country.
As of February, only a fifth of the medical facilities where survey respondents worked were fully staffed and 44% had open clinician positions they could not fill, according to the survey.
Continue reading:
Price-gouging eggs during COVID pandemic lands grocery chain hefty fine, officials say
A grocery chain with 254 stores in California, Washington, Idaho and several other western states faces a $175,000 fine for price-gouging consumers for eggs during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials reported.
Smart & Final, which also has stores in Oregon, Arizona, Nevada and Northern Mexico, settled the price-gouging case with the California Department of Justice, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced in a news release.
“It is unacceptable to take advantage of hardworking California families during times of crisis,” Bonta said, calling the fine a warning to other businesses against price-gouging.
Continue reading below:
‘Stomach flu’ on the rise again in US. 5 things to know about noroviruses
While COVID-19 cases continue to drop in the U.S., outbreaks of another virus — the stomach flu — are ramping up, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
This comes amid easing virus restrictions nationwide. For most of the U.S., roughly 99.5%, it isn’t recommended to wear a mask indoors in public because of low or medium COVID-19 Community Level as of March 31, the CDC says.
Meanwhile, 448 norovirus outbreaks were reported in the U.S. from Aug. 1, 2021, to March 5, 2022, according to the agency. In comparison, that’s 370 more outbreaks than reported from Aug. 1, 2020, to March 5, 2021, when 78 stomach virus outbreaks were seen.
For more on the norovirus outbreak, keep reading:
Medicare is now covering costs of up to 8 at-home COVID tests a month. What to know
Medicare is now covering at-home COVID-19 tests at no cost, officials said.
Those enrolled in Medicare Part B and Medicare Advantage plans are able to get up to eight of the tests each month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said April 4 in a news release.
“You can get your free over-the-counter COVID-19 tests from any eligible pharmacy or health care provider that voluntarily participates in this initiative, even if you aren’t a current customer or patient,” officials said in the news release.
Continue reading here:
Reporters Don Sweeney and Simone Jasper also contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 7:14 AM with the headline "Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: COVID vaccines and hearing issues, at-home tests & more."
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